Category Archives: Information

Information we discovered during our travels.

One Heck of a Welcome to Apataki

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It is not everyday we find a sunken boat, or we get really close to a shallow reef. Such is life cruising on a boat.

This morning we were up before dawn. Our next atoll destination, Apataki, was possible to reach during daylight if we left early enough. We held our breath as we started to pull up the anchor because two boats had gotten stuck on the coral and needed divers to get them out. Cruisers: We suspect “Charlie’s Charts” are just a little off for the anchorage in Manihi. You may want to mark your books to anchor just a touch south of where “Charlie’s” recommends to avoid getting stuck on the coral. The two stuck boats were exactly where “Charlie’s” said to go, and the boats that did not get stuck were a little south.

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Buying Pearls and Jean Paul

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Saturday June 9, 2007 We swore we weren’t going to do it. But we just couldn’t resist. They were just too cool”¦.

Today was going to be uneventful day of getting the boat ready for sea. But mid-morning, a flat bottomed boat with a large outboard motor pulled up with some locals in it. There were two men, a woman, and a 3ish year old with dark skin and blonde hair. Given all the groceries in the boat, they had to be on their way back from the market in town. One of the guys asked if we wanted to go and see a pearl farm. We said sure. We had read in lonely plant that the hotels offered visits to pearl farms, but they cost money. While we were kind of curious about what they did on a pearl farm, we weren’t curious enough to spend money on seeing one. So, we were excited about getting a free (at least we hoped) tour. Continue reading →

Exploring Tatate, Manihi & Snorkeling, Coral, and Dog Attack

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Thursday June 7, 2007 — We began the day with chores, as usual. Christi scrubbed the waterline and down about 3 feet below the waterline. The port side (left side when facing front) wasn’t too bad. To our surprise the starboard side (right side when facing front) had a lawn growing. And we aren’t talking thin, short grass. We’re talking a full, thick lawn that you could mow with a lawnmower. We have to work really hard to get the yard at home to look half as good as the starboard side of the boat did. Needless to say, it took quite a bit of scrubbing to get it off. Why didn’t anyone tell us we needed a weed whacker???

Then we went snorkeling around the coral near where the boat is anchored. The coral is not very colorful, mostly off white and a little bit of lime green. There were some neat shaped coral rocks out there. There were a lot of electric-blue lipped oysters in the coral. We saw a good number of interesting fish. Continue reading →

Touring Paeua, Manihi

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Tuesday June 5, 2007 Manihi: 14-28 S by 146-02 W. First thing this morning some divers came and freed the two trapped sail boats. The third boat also pulled up anchor and left, leaving Kosmos alone in the anchorage. The dive shop is located on the hotel grounds, and Richard caught a ride with the divers back to the hotel. He decided to spend his last couple nights in the lap of luxury. So now it is just the two of us in this super romantic setting. Nice.

This afternoon we went into town. The main town on the island is called Paeua and it is on the south side. While the land consists of a ring around a lagoon, there are breaks in the land that naturally separate one town from another. Here you need a boat to get around the island, and we have seen what look to be public transportation boats. We are guessing Paeua is a couple miles long and about a quarter mile wide. Paeua ends on the west side at the channel entrance and at the east side near where we are anchored, where the land is too low to build on. Continue reading →

Welcome to Mahini

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Monday, June 4, 2007 – This morning the seas calmed down right before dawn. Once it calmed down, it was actually a pleasant ride. Too bad we pulled into the bay at 11:00.

From a distance it looked exactly like we expected. It is a very low island with lots of palm trees. We were anxious as we approached our first South Pacific atoll. A nice calm lagoon is supposed to be inside the islands. The atolls in the Tuomotus are renowned for being tricky to get in and out of. There are always stories about this or that boat that hit coral and sank. One of the reasons we chose Mahini was because it is one of the easier ones to navigate, but you still need to use abundant amounts of caution. Continue reading →